Abstract

Higher education in the new millennium faces several major challenges. Along with an increaseddemand for a tertiary educated workforce, both the state and the student are demandingthat the cost of this education be minimised. We are also faced with a demand forflexible learning from an increasingly mature age, part-time and off-campus student population.Elsewhere (Somasundaram, Bowser & Danaher, 2006), the authors have proposed threeconcepts as pivotal to achieving a society of lifelong learners: learning relationships; systematiclearning; and learning resources and tools. Here we elaborate our conceptualisation andpossible applications of systematic learning in promoting the concerns and interests of thecontemporary knowledge society.Applying the principles of systems thinking (Gharajedaghi, 1999; Senge, 1990), the authorssynthesise a process model of systematic learning taken from instructional design (e.g., Dick,Carey & Carey, 2005; Shambaugh & Magliaro, 2006). The synthesis adds two important elementsnot included in most theoretical instructional design models: accreditation and maintenance.An economic analysis of the synthesised model illuminates the constraints on transformingour higher education system caused by the scarcity of particular resources. A comparativecase study of two methods of learning and achieving accreditation in accountancysimultaneously tests and illustrates the model.The authors contend that these resources need not be scarce and suggest how these bottleneckscan be disbanded. The paper elaborates on the solutions proposed by this analysis,which suggests answers to some of the challenges facing the transformation of higher educationand the global knowledge society in the 21st century.